Rate My Professor Dane Cook

Dane B. Cook is a Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he joined as Assistant Professor in 2005, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012, and to full Professor in 2015. He also holds the position of Research Physiologist and Health Science Specialist at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Madison since 2006. Cook directs the Exercise Psychology laboratories at both the university and the VA hospital, as well as the Marsh Center for Research in Exercise and Movement within the Department of Kinesiology. His academic background includes a BS in Psychology from Arizona State University (1992), an MA in Exercise Science (1995) and PhD in Exercise Science (1998) from the University of Georgia, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroscience at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School (2001).

Cook's research investigates the psychobiology of exercise, focusing on how exercise influences biology, behavior, and brain health, particularly pain, fatigue, mental health, and cognition in healthy individuals and those with chronic multisymptom illnesses including Gulf War Illness, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s disease, and long COVID. Employing brain imaging alongside exercise science, his studies examine interactions between symptoms, brain structure and function, gut microbiota, and the immune system, including post-exertional malaise and acute exercise effects on neuroinflammation and gut dysbiosis. His research has received continuous federal funding for about 20 years from the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Defense, with current VA Merit Review grants supporting projects on Gulf War Illness. Awards include the New Investigator Award from the American College of Sports Medicine (2004), Fellowship in the American College of Sports Medicine (2008), Fellow in the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (2015), and the UW-Madison Postdoctoral Mentor Award (2018). Key publications feature 'Exercise Strengthens Central Nervous System Modulation of Pain in Fibromyalgia' (Brain Sciences, 2016), 'Pain, But Not Physical Activity, Is Associated with Gray Matter Differences in Gulf War Veterans' (Journal of Neuroscience, 2022), and work on exercise responses in chronic fatigue syndrome. Cook has served on the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee, numerous grant review panels, and editorial boards, contributing to conferences and advancing understanding of stigmatized chronic conditions.